Chapter 635
Chapter 635
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 635
>Chapter Title: Qian Fu
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“Thud! Thud!” As Li Huowang drew closer, the crashing sounds grew louder and louder.
Finally, Li Huowang cautiously peered through the thick glass reinforced with iron mesh and saw the source of the noise.
It was a patient in a straitjacket. With his scruffy beard, he arched his back and jerked his head up forcefully, slamming it against the iron bed frame below again and again.
The impacts were loud, but the thin bed frame didn’t seem to bounce back much harm to him.
“What... what kind of mental illness is this?” Li Huowang stood there, brow furrowed, eyeing the man inside with some curiosity.
The man was tall and burly, at least six feet or more. His twitching features and the bizarre way he alternated between crying and laughing made it impossible for Li Huowang to guess his condition.
“He’s locked up in there, so he must be on meds, right? Could it be some side effect from psychiatric drugs?” Li Huowang speculated wildly.
Just then, the man in the room suddenly stopped smashing his head. His wide, bloodshot eyes locked straight onto Li Huowang outside the glass.
“Hahaha!! It’s you! You’re here?”
Li Huowang thought for a moment and nodded.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Good timing! I’ve finally waited for you! I didn’t even have to go out looking for you—you came to me!!”
“Oh? Is that so? Are we close?”
“Hahaha!! Close! Very close!!”
After chatting idly with this severe psychiatric patient for a bit, Li Huowang saw nothing particularly unusual about him and grew bored. He turned to leave.
“Little Li! Be careful!! They’re after you! There’s a lot of them! You can’t fight them alone! You need backup!”
Hearing this, Li Huowang’s heart skipped a beat. He whipped around to face the lunatic, who had now leaped off the bed and was pressing his entire face against the glass, staring at him intently.
But soon, Li Huowang’s tense expression eased.
“You’ve seen my news, haven’t you? That’s how you know my last name’s Li?”
Li Huowang had almost forgotten—he was something of a public figure now. It wasn’t strange for this nutcase to know his surname.
“No!! I’ve known you for a long time! I used to be one of them—they sent me to catch you! And the rest of you! But I didn’t want to! Because I know if you’re gone, it’s all over!”
“Who are ‘they’?” Li Huowang asked.
“They! They’re that dark family banished in ancient times! And! And their protectors—the aliens from Leo!!”
Hearing this, Li Huowang nearly burst out laughing. Lunatics sure had wild imaginations.
“You watch too many cartoons, huh? And your story doesn’t even line up. Did you mix them up?”
“I got locked up, but they sent my brother down after me! He’s looking for you! And the others—he wants to kill you all! He’s already here!! Time’s running out! You have to get me out! Team up with me—we’ll have a fighting chance!!”
Li Huowang shook his head with a smile, about to say something, when an orderly on patrol approached from afar and spotted him.
“Hey! What bed are you from? This is the severe ward! No loitering! Get out!”
“Bye-bye, take your meds. We’ll chat next time.” Li Huowang waved at the man in the room and turned to leave the area.
After wandering the entire mental hospital, it was nearly lunchtime. Li Huowang grabbed a metal tray and got in line.
Compared to other hospitals, the food here was decent. He ordered celery with pork liver and water spinach, then found a quiet corner in the cafeteria to eat.
He’d completely put the earlier incident behind him—who’d take the ramblings of an obvious lunatic seriously?
Still, human curiosity nagged at him a bit. What exactly was wrong with that guy?
From their brief talk, the man wasn’t a total goner or an idiot. He had his own internal logic.
Just then, Wei Shili, who suffered from bipolar disorder, happened to pass by. Seeing Li Huowang sitting alone, he came over.
Having spent some time with Li Huowang, he’d shed his initial prejudices.
Wei Shili hadn’t believed the guy when he claimed he wasn’t sick, but now he was starting to. The man seemed perfectly normal—generous, even. He’d share snacks from home with other patients and was always polite.
“I passed my evaluation! Just waiting for family to pick me up, and I’m out the day after tomorrow!” Wei Shili plopped down excitedly beside Li Huowang.
“I know—you’ve told me already. No need to repeat.”
“Heh, I’m just thrilled! Almost a year stuck in here—finally getting out!” Wei Shili scraped the potato chicken from his tray onto his rice, stirred vigorously, and dug in.
“Almost a year? Yeah, that’s a long stretch. Hey, since you’ve been here so long, do you know that guy locked in the severe restraint room? The one with the big beard?”
Wei Shili looked puzzled.
“Locked in severe? Which one?”
“The big-bearded one.”
“Oh, him. Qian Fu. Old-timer patient. He was here before I arrived.”
“What’s wrong with him? Why’s he locked up?”
“What’s wrong with him?” Wei Shili set down his spoon, face uncertain. “Think it’s... multiple personality disorder or something.”
“Multiple personality? Nah, I’ve never seen anyone with that babbling nonsense.”
Seeing Li Huowang chatting with Wei Shili, the woman with anxiety disorder sidled over, full of gossip.
“What’re you young folks talking about?”
“Nothing much. Just Qian Fu’s condition. It’s multiple personality, right, big sis?” Wei Shili asked Zhang Shui’e.
“Nah, what multiple personality? Don’t spread rumors if you don’t know. Doctors haven’t figured out what’s wrong with him yet. No clue.”
“Doctors don’t even know?” Li Huowang was genuinely surprised. This was a first in his experience.
“Yeah, doctors aren’t gods. They can’t cure everything. If it’s not in the medical books, they’re stumped.”
“Poor Qian Fu. Docs don’t know the disease, so no clue on meds either. When he flares up, they just lock him down till he stabilizes, then let him out.”
Hearing this cleared up Li Huowang’s minor confusion. He went back to eating, putting the whole thing out of mind.
Li Huowang thought that was the end of it. But a few days later, in the afternoon as he ate bamboo shoots, a man emerging from the hallway made his face twitch in surprise. It was Qian Fu—he’d been released.
As Li Huowang looked at him, Qian Fu spotted him too. Skipping breakfast entirely, he headed straight for Li Huowang.
Just as Li Huowang braced for the guy latching onto him, Qian Fu apologized instead.
“Sorry, I must’ve talked to you yesterday, right? Forgive any disturbance. You know how it is—anyone ending up here has their reasons.”
Compared to the raving lunatic from before, today’s Qian Fu was polite and refined—two different people.